Hiram Worchester
Hiram Worchester is a restaurateur ace with the ability to manipulate gravity. He was once a mount of Ti Malice and a puppet of Gregg Hartmann. His restaurant Aces High was located in New York City's Empire State Building and was frequented by wild carders. History Hiram Worchester attempted, at an early point in his career, to take the costumed hero approach to being an ace. He flew through the sky, lighter than air under the alias, "Fatman", although his secret identity was very quickly discovered, as there are few people in New York City as obese as Hiram Worchester. Since giving up on costumed heroism, Hiram went back to his other passion in life, food. He opened up his world famous restaurant Aces High, located on the top of The Empire State building. Hiram delighted in famous aces visiting his restaurant, and every September 14th Hiram opened his restaurant for a Wild Card Day Aces Only dinner to celebrate. As a famous wild carder, Hiram was selected to participate in the 1987 WHO Tour. Unfortunately he encountered Ezili-je-Rouge during the tour's stop in Haiti, and she drew him into the clutches of Ti Malice. Promptly addicted to the tiny joker's "kiss" he was exploited for his wealth and smuggled Ti Malice back to the United States and the smorgasbord of ace mounts and new sensations to sample there. After rejoining the tour, Hiram ran into more trouble in Japan when he ran afoul of the Yakuza. He was rescued from his predicament by the surprise intervention of Fortunato, who had shut himself away in a Japanese monastery after the events of the 1986 Wild Card Day. Long exposure to Ti Malice's excesses sent Hiram into a downward spiral. The management of Aces High increasingly fell to senior staff, and the menu standards dropped. Hiram continued to finance much of Ti Malice's existence, but also fell into living in the kind of squalid conditions that his former self would have detested. He hated what he had become, but could not escape it. The final nail in the coffin was when Hiram tried confronting Chrysalis over her position on Senator Hartmann's presidential aspirations. He misjudged the use of his power, accidentally killing the woman, and proceeded to tamper with the crime scene in order to deflect attention. He was successful, to a point, but with ace PI Jay Ackroyd and masked vigilante Yeoman both on the hunt he was eventually discovered, although not before he helped Ackroyd dispose of Ti Malice for good. Freed from his cursed existence under the tiny joker's control he resolved to turn himself in to the authorities and face justice for his killing of Chrysalis. Wild Card Traits Hiram Worchester can see and manipulate gravity, changing the force of gravity on an object and making it either as light or as heavy as he wants. He constantly uses his power on himself, and so, even though he's obese, wears a constant 30 pounds. Hiram has a small crutch to his ace. Though he knows it's all in his head, Hiram has to make a fist in order to use his power Appearance Hiram is a portly man with a bald head and neatly trimmed beard. He is an impeccable dresser and makes public appearances in the finest of suits. Personality Generally a kind and friendly man, Hiram at his worst is usually only disapproving. He is very fond of aces and goes out of his way to meet new aces to his restaurant. He does have a rare capacity for rage when his staff or people he cares about are threatened, although will attempt to use his formidable power to restrain, rather than harm, an aggressor. Trivia *Maintains an extensive coin collection. *Although Hiram won't grant jokers the same level of privilege that he extends to aces, he is quite charitable when it comes to jokers and offers them aid discretely. Selected Reading * * * * * * Category:Puppets Category:Mounts Category:WHO Tour delegates Category:POV characters